Reply to Homeless tents creeping into the nice/residential part of DC

Forum Index » Metropolitan DC Local Politics

Reply to "Homeless tents creeping into the nice/residential part of DC"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Finland’s “housing first” approach to homelessness seems supportive. They are providing housing and services for all who are homeless. It is cheaper than criminalizing homelessness or providing “safe sleeping sites” aka parking lots like we have done. It is a policy choice. Too logical and compassionate to be taken seriously in the US, I fear.[/quote]

In the US, the problem is 90+% caused by drug addiction and untreated mental illness.  In Finland’s program, the homeless people have to be free of drugs before they qualify.  The US has lots of programs too, but drug addicts don’t want to be separated from their ability to use.  Think about how much they’ve given up already just to keep drugs in their lives - family, friends, jobs, health, shelter. They are completely consumed by their addictions and nothing can change that until THEY want to.

The other point I’d make is that Finland is pretty homogenous, demographically speaking - they’re ALL white.  The US is way more diverse and there are more politics involved in putting any one single program in place.  We’re also a lot more prone to violent crime than a homogenous country like Finland or Japan.  [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics